The Chairman of the Right to Access Information Commission (RAIC), Dr. Ibrahim Seaga Shaw says the validation of his commission’s regulations represents a significant milestone in the development aspirations of Sierra Leone because of the involvement of “important sectors of sectors in deciding the rules that are critical to the furtherance of transparency and accountability.”
Addressing a meeting of representatives of ministries, departments and agencies, civil society organizations, the media, academics and the private sector operatives at the Bintumani Hotel in Freetown, Dr. Shaw said the rules were developed to give effect to the 2013 Act which created the Right to Access Information Commission and that the challenges encountered in the implementation of the Act after five years were partly due to the lack of the supplementing regulations.
The RAI Chairman described his organization’s constitutive Act as one of the most robust Access to Information laws in the world and praised the work of parliament and civil society organizations for doing everything possible to bring the commission into being.
He said the commission’s five-year Strategic Plan had a special pillar geared towards creating an enabling legal environment for the implementation of RAI Regulations developed by the ministry of information and communication to be made widely available to the public.
Emmanuel Saffa Abdulai, RAIC consultant and lead facilitator recalled how civil society coalition fought relentlessly for the enactment of the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill which heralded the RAIC and expressed appreciation for the codification of the RAI regulation into a single document in spite of several challenges the commission has encountered over the past five years.
A representative of the minister of information and communication, Ing Gabriel N’doinje – who is the national cyber security advisor – said there could be no better time for the validation of the RAI regulations than at a time when President Julius Maada Bio had put emphasis on digital transformation which he said would be impossible without access to information.
He encouraged the RAIC to remain steadfast in its strides, assuring that the Commission would continue to receive the support of the ministry of information and communications in its quest to engender a new era in the access to information efforts in Sierra Leone.
The validation exercise was climaxed by a presentation of some of the key highlights of the session including the eligibility criteria in the request for information; the timelines for the response to requests and the exemption of payment for request.
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